Blog #3

Hollywood is just an illusion in that presents a picture of immortality to all who search for fame, hoping that their name and face will be remembered forever by the audiences who idolize them across generations to come. While this is partially true, the industry is fueled by audiences whose interests change in an instant, leaving studios to change their format and hold little regard for the people they leave behind in the process. This cycle is seen in its entirety in Sunset Boulevard, as the film follows aging and forgotten silent movie star Norma Desmond. Desmond couldn’t keep up with the pictures as they sped by her, moving from silence to sound, staying isolated in her crumbling mansion, convinced that the world eagerly awaits her return. She spends her time watching old films she stars in, writing scripts, and buying fancy clothes so she can look as young as ever when her revival finally comes. She craves human connection, and falls head over heels for Joe just days after he starts living with her and paying attention. When she falls for the illusion that director Cecil B. Demille is interested in adapting her script, she instantly drives to the studio to relive her fame, looking as elegant as ever. Demille and Joe don’t want to end her delusion, and act as if they are interested in working with her, while she really has no place in an industry that has changed drastically and moved on across 20 years. As Joe explains to Mr. Demille; “You don’t yell at a sleepwalker—he may fall and break his neck…. She was still sleepwalking along the giddy heights of a lost career”. In Faulkner and Schulberg’s take on show business, characters still chase after fame even after becoming aware of these costs.  For Ira in Golden Land, the allure of fame causes him to act immorally and become distant from his mother, valuing his life of luxury and relevancy over family. Fame sometimes causes people to take themselves for granted, to live in denial and believe they’ll always have their stardom, only coming to terms with reality when it becomes too late.They live lives of hardship, isolated from the rest of the world, unable to keep in touch with themselves. Jenny in A Table at Ciro’s knows this, shaking off her feelings of discomfort to keep up a charming disposition while dancing with A.D Nathan, to hopefully one day end up with a starring role in the pictures. While he, on the other hand, begins to accept the fragility of stardom, and “thought how frightening it would be to enter Ciro’s without the salaaming reception he always complained about but would have felt lost without.” (276)